A few questions from a noob (multiple parts)

[jerseyguy1996]

So here is what I have so far:
1 50 Gallon All-Glass Aquarium (not reef ready)
1 pine stand and canopy by All Glass
3 95 watt VHO (2 URI Aquasun 10000K, 1 URI Super Actinic)
1 Icecap 430 ballast to drive them
1 AquaC Urchin protein Skimmer
1 20 Gal long All Glass Aquarium for a Sump
1 Mag Drive 7 return pump
Overflow box for flow to the sump
2 150 watt heaters
2 maxi jet 1200 power heads
44 lbs Fiji LR
70 lbs Tonga LR
Appliance timer to operate the lights

[jerseyguy1996]

So here is what I have been doing so far. I have all of the live rock stacked up inside the tank in roughly the shape that I want. This is my first aquarium so I am not much of an aquascaper but it is sort of okay. It has been in there since January 3rd. I keep the temperature at about 79, and salinity about 1.023. The lights are on about 10 hours per day. I have started taking the powerheads off of the side and using it to blast the rocks daily (which tends to create a bit of a dust storm in the tank.)

[jerseyguy1996]

The last water test was today and the parameters are:

Date	PH	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate
1/25/2007	8.4	0	2	20

[jerseyguy1996]

I vacuum out as much of the junk that accumulates on the bottom as possible with a syphon. I have noticed that a lot of the accumulation is small fragments of the live rock and other parts are dead organic matter. The dead organic matter gets sucked up in the syphon but the pieces of rock tend to stay behind.

[jerseyguy1996]

First question: Should I be syphoning out all of the material from the bottom of the tank including the fragments of rock? If so......what method is best for getting those pieces out?

[jerseyguy1996]

Second question: I am starting to get some green stringy algae growing on the rocks. Actually the first think that started growing was some brown algae that was darkening all of the rocks. Now the green stuff is popping up in places. Should this concern me?

[jerseyguy1996]

Third Question: I always see people talking about beneficial organisms coming with the rocks (I think they are called copepods) but I have not seen anything on the rock (besides algae(purple, orange, and of course the green and brown stuff that is starting now)). What should I expect to see at this point as far as living organisms?

[jerseyguy1996]

Fourth Question: Should I be dosing anything into the tank at this point? So far I have been removing about 2 gallons of water every few days from syphoning out accumulated detritus on the bottom of the tank and replacing it with fresh saltwater that I usually make a few days earlier. Will these changes be enough for now?

[jerseyguy1996]

Fifth Question: Is there anything else I should be doing during this cycling process?

Please let me know if you need any other information and thanks for any help you can give this noob :-)

[Geoff]

Question 1: do not worry about the LR fragments

Question 2: you will get a lot of different algaes in the first 2 months of the tank being setup. nothing to worry about. i call this the ugly stage.

Question 3: during the day you may not see much life at all. try looking at night. it will also take a couple of months for these critters to settle on a population.

Question 4: sounds good. i like to keep my tank at 1.026. if 2 gallons is enough to get all of the detritus than that is just fine.

Question 5: sit on your hands and quite fiddling with the tank. let the tank do its thing for a 2 months without any critters in it. this gives a chance to know the tank better before you start worrying about critters.

G~

[betamed]

Sounds like your on the right path. Goeff's advice is 100% good.

[Koddie Doo]

the force is strong with geoff we should let him be our light, LOL

What is your plans with your tank? what do u want to keep? do you have a budget,if not get one and stick to it fast, and sorry but we need pics!!!

good to see ur letting it settle in now its time for you to settle on a font!!

J/K!!

[jerseyguy1996]

Thanks Geoff for the advice and Betamed and Koddie Doo as well for backing it up.

Koddie I will be sure to get some pictures up as soon as I get home from work tonight. Great advice on the budget. I set a budget early on.....quickly exceeded it......and now I am at a point where the money just seems to flow out without any restrictions. I will definately have to get that in check quickly......well at least before I have to start telling my employer to lower my 401(k) contributions.

I did have one lucky moment. I switched out my J tube with a DIY overflow box (weir...is what I think they are called) about 2 days ago. Good thing I did because the power went out in my neighborhood while I was at work yesterday (first time the power has gone out in the 4 years that I have lived here) and when it kicked back on the overflow started working again as if nothing had happened.

[jerseyguy1996]

So I just noticed my nitrates went way up since my test yesterday.

Date	PH	Ammonia	Nitrite	Nitrate
1/28/2007	8.4	0	2	10
1/29/2007	8.4	0	2	40

Is this good or bad?

Also.....what level should KH be? I tested mine and it was 11dkh. Calcium was 340 ppm.

[Geoff]

nitrate is not nearly as bad as everyone used to think. just keep an eye on it, but do not worry about it to much.

you alk does seem a bit high compared to your Ca. might want to get it down closer to 7 for that level of Ca.

what are you dosing Ca and alk with? unless there are any Ca forming corals/algae in the tank i would not worry about dosing anything for a while.

G~